Back in Premier League after a year in the Championship, the Canaries from Carrow Road showed last season they belong in England’s top flight. A scintillating finish to the regular season and rampant run through the playoffs proved just that, earning the East Anglian club their deserved place back among England’s elite.

The last time the Canaries were in the Premier League, the managerial duo of Chris Houghton and Neil Adams led the club to an 18th place finish.

Last season: Finished third in the Championship regular season, earned promotion to the Premier League through the promotion playoffs — After starting the 2014-15 season strong (top of the league on October 4), the Canaries faltered over their next 15 games and looked destined to miss out on the playoffs altogether, then they changed managers in January and went on to win 13 of their final 18 games, just missing out on automatic promotion by three points. Cameron Jerome, who was signed for just over $2 million before the start of the season, bagged 20 league goals to led the way, while Bradley Johnson (15), Gary Hooper (12) and Lewis Grabban (12) all reached double digits, as well.

Nathan Redmond, Norwich City FC

Star player: Nathan Redmond — The 21-year-old contributed six goals and 13 assists in league play last season, which are numbers he’ll have to somehow replicate in the Premier League this season to continue to English national team-bound career trajectory. While the likes of Johnson, Howson, Jerome, Hooper and Wes Hoolahan (more than 250 appearances for the club) are all undoubtedly important to the Canaries’ hopes of staying up this season, Redmond is the one transcendent type of game-changing player within the squad.

Coach’s corner: Alex Neil took took over at Carrow Road on Jan. 9, days after Neil Adams was fired. Neil, who is just 34, led the Canaries to wins in 15 of their final 22 league games. Following the conclusion of his playing career at age 31, Neil managed his final playing club, Hamilton Academical, for two seasons and won the club promotion to Scotland’s top flight in his first full season in charge.

PST predicts: Considering the Canaries went down for just a season, the current roster is still largely a Premier League-quality squad from two seasons ago — only Leroy Fer, Robert Snodgrass and Anthony Pilkington were players of consequence to leave after the 2013-14 season. Neil still needs to do a bit more business to further strengthen the squad before the Sept. 1 transfer deadline, but it’s been a summer of smart signings thus far. The one thing lacking from the Norwich squad as it currently stands: a proven Premier League goalscorer — Jerome and Hooper have scored just 36 PL goals combined.

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When Tuesday night’s U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal finally fell apart for the Houston Dynamo, it completely crumbled.

Houston weathered a 30th minute red card to Luis Garrido, even going up 1-0 early in the second half, before giving way to the firepower of Sporting KC to the tune of a 3-1 loss at Sporting Park.

Sporting KC joins Real Salt Lake and Philadelphia Union in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals. KC and RSL will mix it up on Aug. 11 or 12, while Philadelphia awaits the winner of Wednesday night’s Orlando City SC vs. Chicago Fire match.

Bruin tapped in a rebound off a corner kick on one of Houston’s only shots on target of the night in the 59th minute, as Sporting dominated the match (When all was said and done, KC out-attempted Houston 16-5).

Twelve minutes later, though, Benny Feilhaber bested Joe Willis after the Dynamo allowed the former USMNT midfielder to walk into the middle of the pitch and let loose with a low drive.

Dom Dwyer would put KC in the lead in the 86th minute off an assist from Krisztian Németh, and the two switched roles shortly after the game was restarted. Houston went from looking like they could become the second 10-man team of the night to advance in the Open Cup to dropping out of the tournament.

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Still battling for a spot in Europe, Newcastle United will sport a new look today against visiting Norwich City. At 2:45 ET, the Magpies will play their first match since agreeing to sell Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint-Germain (with the game available to stream on NBC Live Extra).

It’s a blow for Newcastle, if an inevitable one. Cabaye nearly moved this summer, and with teams willing to approach $30 million for the France international, it was only a matter of time until the midfielder moved. With PSG having hit the $33 million mark to bring the former Lille dynamo back to France, Alan Pardew will have to find another way to augment the scoring of Loic Remy up top.

The Magpies enter the day’s match one point back of Manchester United for seventh place, a spot that could prove England’s last entry into UEFA Europa League. Should they fail to adapt to the loss of their best player, Newcastle could settle into mid-table insignificance. The team’s too far from the drop to worry about relegation.

The same can’t be said for Norwich City, though the Canaries have crafted a six-point gap between themselves and 18th. Chris Hughton’s side is coming off a much-needed 1-0 win at Hull City, their first league win since Dec. 7. Make it two in a row, and Norwich could finish the day in the table’s top half.

To do that, the Canaries will need to find goals, with their 18 on the season ranking 18th in the Premier League. Today, Gary Hooper and Ricky van Wolfswinkel get the call up top. The pair have combined for five goals in 30 appearances this season.

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The easiest way Manchester City could have taken the pressure off debutant goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon would have been to score a lot of goals. That’s exactly what the home side did, defeating Norwich City, 7-0, on Saturday.

The Romanian goalkeeper had little to do all game. Manager Manuel Pellegrini handed him his first Premier League start in place of Joe Hart, whose troubles this season have been well documented.

His teammates at the other end helped him by scoring early and often.

In the 16th minute, Canaries midfielder Bradley Johnson got the last touch on the opening goal. Gaël Clichy overlapped on the left flank and sent in a cross for David Silva. His initial shot was blocked, as was Sergio Agüero’s follow-up effort. However, that block ricocheted off Johnson and looped into the goal.

Just four minutes later, Silva would find the target. Samir Nasri found Agüero over the top on a counter-attack, and he laid the ball off for Silva’s late run into the penalty area. He made no mistake this time, smacking the ball past John Ruddy in the Norwich goal.

Nasri got another assist, helped by a defender, five minutes later. His corner kick found Matija Nastasić at the near post, and he headed into a defender, the deflection deceiving Ruddy on its way into the goal.

The fourth came from center forward Alvaro Negredo. Silva and Yaya Touré exchanged short passes on top of Norwich’s penalty area before slotting the ball through to Agüero. The Argentine was in an offside position when the ball was played, but the flag stayed down.

Shortly after, Pantilimon made the only tough save he needed to preserve his clean sheet. Gary Hooper took his chances from long distance, and the lanky Romanian needed nearly all of his 6-foot, 8-inch height to touch it around the post.

Yaya Touré added a fifth in the second half, curling a world-class free kick directly into the top corner from about 23 yards out on the hour mark. Agüero added a goal of his own after his two previous assists, slamming home a volley from around the penalty spot after a soft clearance by Sébastien Bassong in the 71st minute.

Substitute forward Edin Džeko capped it off in the 86th minute with a nice turn and strike inside the penalty area. The cheers from the City crowd felt almost ironic by that point, as its team won through seven different goalscorers. Pantilimon never looked uncomfortable in his Premier League debut, as his team outshot Norwich, 26-7.